Shirin Asad, the Karachi woman who was arrested on Friday for allegedly beating her 11-year-old domestic help to death and beating the victim’s elder brothers, was produced before the judicial magistrate East on Saturday.

The court remanded her into police custody for five days so that investigation officer could interrogate her.

The court also ordered the formation of a medical board for the post-martem of Rafique Neharyo who died on February 8.

“There were marks of torture on the body of the boy, so DNA samples should be taken by the investigating officer and geo-fencing should also be done,” the victim’s lawyer, Advocate Hashim pleaded with the magistrate.

He added that one of the victim’s brothers was still lying unconscious at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center (JPMC).

Advocate Hashim said that all video recording devices at the accused’s house should be taken into custody and Saleem, the man who recruited children to work at Shirin Asad’s house, should also be investigated.

The court inquired what the accused, Shirin did for a living. She answered that she was a homemaker and a mother of two.

Background

On Friday, Karachi police arrested a woman in Block 13-D, Gulshan-e-Iqbal for allegedly beating her 11-year-old domestic help, Rafique Neharyo, to death and beating the victim’s elder brothers. All three boys were employed by Shirin through Saleem, who would receive Rs15,000 every month and send the money to the boys’ father living in the Tharparkar district.

An FIR against Shirin was registered at the Gulshan Iqbal Police station on the complainant of the boys’ father.

The father, Qabool Manthar Ali, is a resident of Keetar Goth in Tharparkar District’s Chachro tehsil, according to the FIR. Rafique, Rashid, and Razzaq, his three sons, aged 11, 13, and 16 had been working at Shirin’s house for the past six, thirteen, and fourteen months, respectively.

Around 2 pm on February 8, the complainant’s cousin informed him that his 11-year-old son had died in Karachi.

The father contacted Mitha Khan, his younger brother, to get further details. Mitha said Shirin Asad, told him that the boy was injured about 15 days ago after falling from a rickshaw and that on February 8, he slipped and fell in the bathroom, after which he was taken to Zain Hospital in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and then moved to Dow University of Health Sciences, where he died.

The police wanted to conduct a post-mortem examination when Mitha and other relatives arrived at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal police station to retrieve the body, but they refused in writing to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, according to the FIR.

The father said he questioned his other two sons about what had happened to their younger brother after the burial.

His eldest son, Razzaq, then revealed that the woman used to allegedly beat him and his deceased brother with “heated tongs” and “he had not fallen from a rickshaw”. She had hit him in the head with the pliers, which resulted in his death. “My brother had not fallen in the washroom,” the FIR quoted him as saying.

The brother also said the woman also pulled out his nails “with pliers”.